[MikeM]

With the Edo period in Japan, there were generations of peace during which the art of the garden progressed and the Camellia came to the fore. From the early 1600s, the Camellia was perfected, with sports being preserved as new varieties and reproduced by taking woody cuttings. These were imported to Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, marking the beginning of interest in the Camellia in the West. Among the early Japanese varieties is one known as Tamanoura, a slow growing antique variety of no commercial interest.

I received an early Christmas present today... a Camellia which looks like C. Tamanoura and is believed truly to be C. Tamanoura. It is said to have been taken as a cutting in the 1960s from a C. Tamanoura grown by a now departed "Camellia Kichi" who obtained his specimen at the turn of the 20th century.

If it is Tamanoura, it is linked over the centuries to the soil of Japan. It would be my only Camellia created in Japan, and such a rare find. I need a proper place of honor for it not too distant from the Nishikigoi.